The Queen of the tank trailers

Reading time: approx. 3 minutes
Text: Till Homrighausen
Photos: Joachim Stretz

A vehicle manufacturer from Leverkusen is shaking up the industry. Sentences like “We have always done it this way” are taboo at the SEKA Group. The company has specialized in the production of food tanks – with enormous weight savings, short delivery times and above all with a great deal of emotion.

“Why do we build commercial vehicles?” Dragan Stanojlovic brings the question into the room, and you can tell by his challenging look that the answer is already on the tip of his tongue. The owner of the Leverkusen-based SEKA Group doesn’t fail to attract attention through moderation, and this is precisely his concept: “We build commercial vehicles because we want to change the entire market. It is important that each of my employees knows why we do what we do: Because of passion,” emphasizes Stanojlovic. There is no doubt that these words are not just empty phrases when you see the tanker manufacturer’s managing director on his factory premises. While he is instructing the construction of the new catering facility as he passes by, his cell phone hardly ever stands still. Nevertheless, he insists on jumping onto the forklift and maneuvering a few trailers in passing.

Emotional attachment to the product

Dragan Stanojlovic began his career in the commercial vehicle sector as a dealer. “I procured vehicles for customers. Even then, the enormous delivery times of the manufacturers and the fact that I was constantly being told: ‘That’s not going to work.’ annoyed me. In my opinion, too little attention was paid to customer needs.” His ambition was awakened, in 2011 the first self-built SEKA semi-trailer stood on the exhibition transport logistic in Munich. Meanwhile 18 employees produce more than 100 semi-trailer tanks for liquid food per year in an industrial area in Leverkusen in Rhineland, Germany.

»If our customers are successful, so is SEKA.«

Dragan Stanojlovic, Owner of the SEKA Group

He and his team are still proud of their customer focus today. “The highest possible profit for our customers and partners is particularly important to us. If our customers are successful, so is SEKA,” says Stanojlovic. In order to offer genuine added value, the company, which is young by commercial vehicle standards, goes into every detail, no matter how small. “The demands of the market are great, above all they come from various stakeholders, whom we all want to serve perfectly. Drivers, dispatchers, fleet managers, managing directors – everyone should have a real benefit from our products,” explains Dragan Stanojlovic. In order to deliver the best possible result in the end, every employee goes through every process in the company at least once. “I want everyone here to understand every step,” Stanojlovic makes clear, “because only then you can build an emotional bond with the product. If necessary, my employees will even work into the night on a voluntary basis. They all love our products.”

Queen of tank trailers

The fact that Dragan Stanojlovic expects his customers to deal with the SEKA philosophy is not surprising. “If you are a partner and push each other, then you help each other to become better every day. If someone can’t understand our concept, then he is actually not our customer”. The same is true for our suppliers. Stanojlovic knows exactly what he has to demand: “Anyone can build a vehicle. For us, it’s all about building the best possible end product in cooperation with the suppliers. We rely on the core strengths of our partners and use only the best components – from coating to running gear”. The latest achievement from the SEKA warehouse is the “Superleggera” tank trailer.

The vehicle manufacturer calls his trailers the “Queen of tank trailers”. Here the Leverkusen-based company has taken it particularly seriously. The stainless steel tank is not only an eye-catcher visually: With five and a half tons and a capacity of 31,000 liters, the three-chamber vehicle is a lightweight. To achieve this, the SEKA designers relied on innovative products from BPW Bergische Achsen, among others. “The Airlight II running gear with aluminium hub and the super-light LightTube trailing arm is the best solution we can imagine for the vehicle,” explains Stanojlovic.

Vehicle manufacturer SEKA relies on the solution of the running gear specialist BPW.
But in order to give customers the greatest possible advantage with the “Superleggera” trailer, not only because of its enormously low unladen weight, the Leverkusen-based vehicle manufacturer also relies on another solution from the running gear specialist BPW: the AirSave tire pressure control system. Irrespective of the potential savings that the right tire pressure offers in terms of wear and fuel consumption, Stanojlovic sees further advantages for operators, dispatchers and drivers: “AirSave makes life easier for everyone involved in the transport process. Collision damage to tires, for example, can hardly be prevented. However, the frequent breakdown on the highway can. With autonomous re-pumping, you can still make it to the workshop in time. That takes pressure off everyone involved”.
Dragan Stanojlovic sees advantages of the BPW tyre pressure regulation system for operators, dispatchers and drivers: „AirSave makes life easier for everyone involved in the transport process.“
Creating added value – preferably with every screw. Managing Director Stanojlovic wants to make everything possible for his business partners: “We want to be part of our customers’ success. I look at every process in our company every day, in order to improve it further and further”. His demands on his company are high. Delivery times of four months at the most are his declared goal. If things have to go faster and a freight forwarder needs a vehicle immediately, he falls back on his rental fleet of over 100 semi-trailer tanks. 364 days in the year he and his employees are there for the SEKA customers, he promises. “One day is for calling us and coming here”, he laughs. “‘Don’t change your dream, change the world’ – this is the motto I live by”, says Dragan Stanojlovic. You believe every word he says.
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2 Comments

  1. Good day,

    Do you rent heated tank-trialer for food products for a period of 1 to 6 month?

    Reply
    • Dear Elena

      Thank you very much for your message. We do not offer tank trailers for hire ourselves but please refer to SEKA Nutzfahrzeuge who is featured in the article. They might be able to help you with your request: https://seka-nutzfahrzeuge.com/

      Reply

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